India's Jewish Population Through The Ages

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

     Celebration at a wedding of Bnei Israel of Jews  in India.  Two days before Yamit Talker-Shefer’s wedding to her husband Elad, in traditional Indian custom her family donned colorful saris and gathered together for the henna ceremony, in which her ring finger was painted red in preparation for the wedding ring to come. Forty-eight hours later, in traditional Jewish custom, she and Elad stood under the chuppah – the Jewish wedding canopy – and recited ancient Hebrew vows before an Israeli rabbi.

While some Indian Jews state that their ancestors arrived in India during the time of the Ancient Kingdom of Judah, others identify themselves as descendants of Ancient Israel's Ten Lost Tribes who arrived earlier.

Actually, the relations of the Hebrew with India goes back in the time of Solomon as told in (I Kings 9:26-8).  "King Solomon made a fleet in Ezion-geber....Hiram (king of Tyre) sent in the fleet his servants, , shipmen who knew the sea, together with Solomon's servants;  they came to Ophir and took gold from there, 420 talents, and brought them to King Solomon."                         

Many areas of the Arabian Peninsula have been proposed as the site of Ophir; the principal alternative locations overseas are East Africa and India.  Earlier in the 19th century Max Müller and other scholars identified Ophir with Abhira, near the Indus River in modern-day state of Gujarat, India. According to Benjamin Walker Ophir is said to have been a town of the Abhira tribe.  Friedrich Max Müller(1823-1900)  was a German-born philologist and Orientalist, who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life. He was one of the founders of the western academic disciplines of Indian studies and religious studies. Müller wrote both scholarly and popular works on the subject of Indology. 

The Jews of Cochin first established themselves in Cranganore in the 6th century. The Portuguese captured it in 1523, afterwards it became the Jewish center.  They were then called the "Black Jews."  When Jews from Turkey and Syria entered their world, they kept apart from these "White Jews" because of the caste system of India.   Then they moved to Cochin by the 16th century. It was a port and former state on the Malabar coast of Southern India. Later, their population was reinforced by Jews from Europe and Syria.  Ex-Marranos, probably from Spain or Portugal (Jews who pretended to be Catholics, then reverted back to Judaism), traveled from London or Amsterdam,  and appeared in many places, including Madras where there was an organized congregation.   The Jews of Cochin suffered during the Portuguese incursions.  Under  the Dutch and later, British rule, they flourished.  While living in Cochin, they preserved their own liturgy for marriages, etc.  About 100 Jews were left in Cochin by 1968 when they clebrated the 400th annibversary of its synagogue in a special service attended by the indian PM, Mrs. Indira Gandhi.  By 1993, there were 25 "White Jews" and 50 "Black Jews" left in Cochin.                     

CALICUT had Jewish communities as well as in other places in India during the Middle Ages.  Although the city's official name is Kozhikode, in English it is sometimes known by its anglicised version, Calicut.  Kozhikode is a town with a long recorded history.  Kozhikode is a coastal city in the south Indian state of Kerala, a southern port. It was a significant spice trade center and is close to Kappad Beach, where Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama landed in 1498.                                                                                   

                     Ruby Meyers(1907-1983) in 1920, The Vamp from the community of Baghdadi Jews in India.  She was born in Pune, Bombay Presidency, British India, and died in her flat in Mumbai,(Bombay), India.  

  Shalom Bollywood; Ruby Myers aka Sulochana, was the first superstar of Indian silent cinema;  India's forgotten history of Jews who made it big in early cinema; Though they were outsiders, Jewish performers found it easy to blend in in Bombay cinema.  Hindi cinema, often known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is the Indian Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai (Bombay-renamed in 1995). The term is a portmanteau of "Bombay" and "Hollywood".

                                                

The Bene Israel Jews lived in the neighborhood of Bombay-now called Mumbai, a port.  Bene Israel (sons of Israel) claim to be one of the Lost Tribes of Israel.  It is a historic Jewish community in India.  This is in the central Westside of India. Ethnically Indian, their origin is uncertain.  In the 18th century, their Jewish observance was at a low ebb, but they have since returned to a whole-hearted observance of Judaism. European Jews, mainly connected with the Sephardi community of London, settled in Bombay in the 17th century and established a short-lived community in the 18th. In the 19th century, Jews from Baghdad went to Bombay, forming their own community. Bombay's population in 1981 was 3,076.  This was considered the greatest center of Bene Israel.  It is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-most populous city in the country after Delhi and the seventh-most populous city in the world with a population of roughly 20 million.  In contrast, New York City has 8,008,278.                                      

Members of India’s Bnei Menashe Jewish community (photo credit: LAURA BEN-DAVID/SHAVEI ISRAEL)  5 women will make aliyah to Israel by New Year of 2021.  

 Some Indian Jews claim descent particularly from Ancient Israel's tribe of Menashe and are referred as the Bnei Menashe. It is estimated that India's Jewish population peaked at around 20,000 in the mid-1940s, and began to rapidly decline due to their emigration to Israel after its creation in 1948.                                  

  There have been 4 Jewish Miss India.  Of these, Miss India,  3,000 lived in Bombay and the rest in 9 other communities. 

Fleur Ezekiel of Bene Israel was chosen as Miss World in 1959. She was a model.  

When the first Miss India beauty pageant took place in 1947, it was no surprise that a stunning Bollywood starlet named Pramila won. She was a natural beauty, with wide, sparkling eyes and a warm smile. She was also a Baghdadi Jew, born Esther Victoria Abraham.

Jews have always been a religious minority in India – currently hovering around 5,000 in a total Indian population of 1.3 billion. But when Pramila accepted the Miss India title at age 31 – while pregnant with her fifth child – she blazed a trail for future Jewesses, starting with her own daughter, Naqi Jahan. Jahan was crowned twenty years after her mother, and was the first to represent India in Australia’s Queen of the Pacific Quest beauty pageant.   They are the only mother and daughter to have both won the Miss India title. Esther Victoria Abraham died on 6 August 2006.

Today's Sassoon family, Rival Iraqi  Jewish clans in Shanghai

Iraqi Jews began to arrive from Baghdad in the early 19th century established Arabic-speaking communities in Bombay, Calcutta.  Some of them, such as the SASSOON family, have attained great prominence. The Sassoon family, known as "Rothschilds of the East" due to the immense wealth they accumulated in finance and trade, is a family of Baghdadi Jewish descent. Originally based in Baghdad, Iraq, they later moved to Bombay, India, and then spread to China, England, and other countries. They numbered about 3,000 in 1948.

European Jews, including German refugees, settled in groups during the later period of British rule.  they have never established any communal organization.               

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has just left India after a six-day official visit during which the two countries heralded a "new era" in ties. BBC Hindi's Zubair Ahmed travelled to Beersheba in Israel to meet a community of Indian-origin Jews who migrated there soon after the nation's creation.

Most Indian Jews have settled in Israel and by 1990, only 5,600 were left in India.  Of these, 3,000 lived in Bombay and the rest in 9 other communities.  Over 70,000 Indian Jews now live in Israel (over 1% of Israel's total population).                 

Let's not forget that Pashtuns also live in India,  particularly in the Rohilkhand region of the state of Uttar Pradesh, and in the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan. We now believe that Pashtos/Pashtuns, at least some of them, are from the 10 lost tribes of Israel, Israelites who were captured and taken away by the Assyrians in 721 BCE.  Since many are living in India, it's been easier to study them for this historical research and DNA studies.  The Pataudis were of Afghan descent, whose ancestors arrived in India in the late 15th century as mercenaries of the Pashtun emperor Bahlul Lodi, during the latter's reign. According to Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, the family are "basically Afghans with a bit of Turkish blood."  The Turks had an empire called The Ottoman Empire.  The Ottoman Empire ruled a large portion of the Middle East and Eastern Europe for over 600 years. It first formed in 1299 and finally dissolved in 1923, becoming the country of Turkey.  They had lost the empire by losing in WWI on  November 11, 1918.  

Resource:

Tanakh, Stone Edition

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_M%C3%BCller

https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/leisure/story/20171113-indian-silent-cinema-ruby-myers-jewish-telephone-operator-1077155-2017-11-05

https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-the-rival-iraqi-jewish-clans-who-changed-the-face-of-shanghai-1.8999365

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sassoon_family

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Myers

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/06/four-jewish-beauties-in-indias-beauty.html